UNIT – II

PERSONALITY AND PERCEPTION & MOTIVATION

Personality: Personality Definition & Determinants; Key personality traits relevant to work
behavior; Personality Types; Contrasting Personality traits, Tolerance to ambiguity & role of
personality.
Perception & Motivation: Factors affecting perception; Perception & its application in
organization; Introduction to Motivation & Maslow‘s Hierarchy of Needs; Herzberg two
factor theory of Motivation, ERG Theory.

Introduction:

The word personality in English is derived from the Latin word persona. Originally, it
denoted the masks worn by theatrical players in ancient Greek dramas. Thus, the initial
conception of personality was that of a superficial social image that an individual adopts in
playing life roles — a public personality.
Personality is the fundamental and foremost determinant of individual behavior. It
seeks to integrate the physiological and psychological facets of an individual to put them into
action. Personality consists of an individual‘s characteristics and distinctive ways of
behavior. Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that
influences his or her behavior toward goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of
protecting these states.

Definition:
 According to Anderson and Parker, ―Personality is the totality of habits, attitudes, and
traits that result from socialization and characterizes us in our relationships with
others.‖
 According to Morton Prince, ―Personality is the sum total of all the biological innate
dispositions, impulses tendencies and instincts of the individual, and the acquired
disposition and tendencies acquired by experience.‖
About Personality:
The term personality is used in various senses. Generally, it is used to indicate the
external outlook of an individual. In philosophy, it means internal quality. But in social
psychology, the term personality indicates-neither the external or outward pattern nor does it
indicate the internal quality. It means an integrated whole. In the modem world and
psychology, it has come to indicate the sum total of an individual‘s characteristics and
qualities. Various thinkers, social psychologists, and others have defined personality in

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various ways. It is a sum of physical, mental and social qualities in an integrated manner.
Thus, personality is the sum of the ideas, attitudes, and values of a person which determine
his role in society and form an integral part of his character.

Characteristics:
 Personality is something which is unique in each individual.
 Personality refers particularly to the persistent qualities of an individual.
 Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to the environment.
 Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions.
 It impacts behaviors and action and it express multiple nature
Foundations of Personality:

On the basis of various definitions it can be said that personality is founded on certain
structures. These are:
 Physiological structure of the organism
 Psychic structure of the organism
 Social and cultural structure. These structures contribute to the formation of
personality. Individual is born with certain physical and psychological traits or
structures. The physiological and psychological traits react to the social and cultural
atmosphere. Consequently, the personality is made up. Various structures that form
the personality are discussed below.
 Physiological structure: Physiological structure of an individual influences the
development of personality to a large extent. The foundation of this structure is laid in
the mother‘s womb. The physiological structure is deeply influenced by certain
internal as well as external agencies. Heredity as well as social environment
influences the development of the physiological structure.
 Heredity contributes to intelligence and mental traits. These factors do influence the
development of personality, because they have a place in the society.
 Heredity imposes several limitations and restrictions on the personality of an
individual. Culture is very much a gift of the heredity. Due to this culture, it is
possible for an individual to adjust himself to different situations.
 Besides biological inheritance, in social heredity there is a transmission of personality
characteristics from one generation to another through pattern of relationship. The
vehicle of transmission is not the germ plasm but a psychogenetic influence of parent
on child. Heredity may prove the raw material, out of which experience moulds the
personality.
 Psychic Structure of the Personality:

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  The Psychic structure consists of: Attitudes, Traits, Sentiments, Feelings &
Emotions, Values and ideals.
 Social and Cultural Structure:
 Society has a culture of its own and in the atmosphere of that socio cultural
background, the personality of individual develops in its own way. The attitudes
of an individual are largely influenced by cultural order. We find difference in
the behavior of individuals due to sociocultural environment. That is why culture
plays an important role in the development of personality.
 Besides the above structures, experience play in important role in the formation
of personality. Man is the child of experience. The experiences are of two types,
one that the infant acquires in his group, for example family. The parents being
very intimate to the child make a deep impact of him. The child is fashioned in
his home after his parents. He picks up their patterns, manners and poise. The
learning of social norms form parents and other agents of socialization has
significant formative influence on him. Another set of experience he goes
through, is the result of his interaction with others in the context of a social
situation.
 Children brought up in the same family may not have similar experience. The
change of social environment in family, variation attitude of parents towards the
children, the temper of playmates, school environment create the differing
experience. The personality that one has acquired also plays a part in determining
the impact of new experience.
 Nature of Relationship between Culture and Personality: Culture and personality
are interrelated. Culture influences the development of personality to a very large
extent. The relationship between culture and personality discussed by various scholars
are enumerated below.
 Influence of the culture on the internal biological behavior.
 Influence of culture on sexual behavior.
 Influence of culture on perception.
 Culture and cognition.
 Effect of culture on sentiment and emotions.
 Influence of culture on mode of habit.

Determinants of Personality:
Personality is not determined by a single factor, but by an accumulation of many
factors. Some of those factors are psychological, while others are physical, biological, and

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hereditary. I have compiled some of the most influential factors when it comes to
determinants of personality.

Key personality traits relevant to work behavior:

Recognizing your personality traits is the first step in successfully achieving
your goals. Being able to capitalize on your strengths and also understanding how to
strengthen your weaknesses is the cornerstone of success. When we use our
personality to make decisions best suited for ourselves, we are more likely to find
long-lasting happiness and satisfaction. Similarly, understanding the personalities of
others will help us to form stronger relationships.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:
First, let‘s examine the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This test was
created by Isabel Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs. They made the first
assessment in the 1940s based on their familiarity with Carl Jung‘s theory on
personality types. Myers and Briggs did not intend to point out people‘s flaws but
instead aimed to help people better understand themselves so they could live a happier
life. They used four different scales in their assessment:
What energizes you and gets you excited?
• Extraversion (E): Are you a person who draws energy from the outside world of
people, things, activities or interaction most of the time? (Keywords: external,
outside thrust, talks out, thinks of many things, involved with people/things,
interaction, action, do-think-do)
• Introversion (I): Are you a person who draws energy from the internal world of
ideas, emotions or impressions most of the time? (Keywords: internal, inside
thrust, hold back on comments, thinks deeply of few things, involved with own
thought, work alone, reserve, think-do-think)

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Where do you put most of your attention?
• Sensing (S): Do you prefer to take in information through the five senses,
noticing what is here and now most of the time? (Keywords: The five senses,
what is real, practical, present orientation, facts, using established skills, utility,
step-by-step)
• Intuition (N): Do you prefer to take in information through a ―sixth sense,‖
noticing what might be most of the time? (Keywords: sixth sense, hunches, what
could be, theoretical, future possibilities, insight, earning new skills, novelty, leap
around)

What do you value most when making a decision or judgment?

• Thinking (T): Do you prefer organizing and structuring information and

deciding in a logical, objective way most of the time? (Keywords: head, logical
system, objective, justice, critique, principles, reason, firm but fair)
• Feeling (F): Do you prefer organizing and structuring information to decide in a
personal, value-oriented way most of the time? (Keywords: heart, value system,
subjective, mercy, compliment, harmony, empathy, compassionate)

What do you show outwardly most of the time?

• Judging (J): Do you prefer living a planned and organized life and are strong on
decision making most of the time? (Keywords: plan oriented, regulate, control
situation, settled, run one‘s life, set goals, decisive, organized)
• Perceiving (P): Do you prefer for living a spontaneous and flexible life and are
strong on information gathering most of the time? (Keywords: spontaneous
oriented, flow along, adapt to situation, tentative, let life happen, gather
information, open, flexible).

Five Personality Traits Influence Work Behavior:

Psychology based assessment that focuses on five wide-ranging categories that

describe personality. The acronym used for The Big Five is OCEAN and include openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
―The Big Five‖ or ―Five-Factor Model‖ The Big Five comprises five major traits. A
way to remember these five is with the acronym OCEAN (O is for Openness; C is
for Conscientiousness; E is for Extraversion; A is for Agreeableness; N is for Neuroticism).
Figure 3 provides descriptions of people who would score high and low on each of these
traits.

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Behaviors Predicted by the trait:

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Ambiguity:
Ambiguity – doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention
Ex: Teacher gives you an assignment but no instructions on how to start or complete
the possibility of interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways.
Tolerance:
Tolerance – the capacity to accept deviation from the normal
• Being able to accept something or someone who is different than what you
consider normal.
• Respecting that person‘s rights and opinions
There have been many attempts to conceptualize the construct of ambiguity
tolerance–intolerance as to give researchers a more standard concept to work with. Many of
these conceptualizations are based on the work of Frenkel-Brunswik.

Budner (1962) defines the construct as the following: Intolerance of ambiguity may
be defined as ‗the tendency to perceive (i.e. interpret) ambiguous situations as sources of
threat‘; tolerance of ambiguity as ‗the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as desirable.
Developing Tolerance to Ambiguity
Individuals develop a tolerance for ambiguity by:
• Gathering all information possible.
• Brainstorming assumptions to close the gaps in information they collected.
• Considering alternate assumptions.
• Devising a plan for testing their assumptions.
• Executing their plan
Managing tolerance to ambiguity at workplace:
• Organize your thoughts
• Maintain a professional attitude
• Refrain from making judgments about others
• Keep an open mind
• Don‘t make assumptions or jump to conclusions
• Keep control of yourself
Perception:

Perception is a process/ by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory

impressions/ in order to give meaning to their environment. It is a unique
interpretation of the situation not an exact recording of it. Perception is the

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 organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to
represent and understand the environment.

Definition:

• According to Joseph Reitz; ―Perception includes all those processes by which an

individual receives information about his environment—seeing, hearing, feeling,
tasting and smelling.‖
• According to B. V. H. Gilmer, ―Perception is the process of becoming aware of
situations, of adding meaningful associations to sensations.‖

Perceptual Process: The perceptual process is the sequence of psychological steps that a
person uses to organize and interpret information from the outside world.
The steps are:
 Objects are present in the world.
 A person observes.
 The person uses perception to select objects.
 The person organizes the perception of objects.
 The person interprets the perceptions.
 The person responds.
The selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ among
different people. Therefore, when people react differently in a situation, part of their behavior

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can be explained by examining their perceptual process, and how their perceptions are
leading to their responses.
Perceptual Selection
Perceptual selection is driven by internal and external factors.
Internal factors include:
 Personality – Personality traits influence how a person selects perceptions. For
instance, conscientious people tend to select details and external stimuli to a greater
degree.
 Motivation – People will select perceptions according to what they need in the
moment. They will favor selections that they think will help them with their current
needs, and be more likely to ignore what is irrelevant to their needs.
 Experience – The patterns of occurrences or associations one has learned in the past
affect current perceptions. The person will select perceptions in a way that fits with
what they found in the past.
External factors include:
 Size – A larger size makes it more likely an object will be selected.
 Intensity – Greater intensity, in brightness, for example, also increases perceptual
selection.
 Contrast – When a perception stands clearly out against a background, there is a greater
likelihood of selection.
 Motion – A moving perception is more likely to be selected.
 Repetition – Repetition increases perceptual selection.
 Novelty and familiarity – Both of these increase selection. When a perception is new, it
stands out in a person‘s experience. When it is familiar, it is likely to be selected
because of this familiarity.
Perceptual Organization: After certain perceptions are selected, they can be organized
differently. The following factors are those that determine perceptual organization.

 Figure-ground – Once perceived, objects stand out against their background. This can
mean, for instance, that perceptions of something as new can stand out against the
background of everything of the same type that is old.
 Perceptual grouping – Grouping is when perceptions are brought together into a
pattern.
 Closure – This is the tendency to try to create wholes out of perceived parts.
Sometimes this can result in error, though, when the perceiver fills in unperceived
information to complete the whole.

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  Proximity – Perceptions that are physically close to each other are easier to organize
into a pattern or whole.
 Similarity – Similarity between perceptions promotes a tendency to group them
together.
 Perceptual Constancy – This means that if an object is perceived always to be or act a
certain way, the person will tend to infer that it actually is always that way.
 Perceptual Context – People will tend to organize perceptions in relation to other
pertinent perceptions, and create a context out of those connections.
Each of these factors influence how the person perceives their environment, so
responses to their environment can be understood by taking the perceptual process into
account.

Factors that Influence Perception:

Motivation:
Motivation is the word derived from the word ‘motive‘ which means needs, desires,
wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating people to actions to
accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the
people‘s behavior can be -
• Desire for money
• Success
• Recognition
• Job-Satisfaction
• Team work, etc.
Importance of Motivation:
Motivation is important to an individual as:

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 • Motivation will help him achieve his personal goals.
• If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction.
• Motivation will help in self-development of individual.
• An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team.
Similarly, motivation is important to a business as:
• The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is.
• The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more profitable
and successful is the business.
• During period of amendments, there will be more adaptability and creativity.
• Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place.
Theories of Motivation:

Classical theories of motivation:

 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory: Human behavior is goal-directed. Motivation
cause goal-directed behavior. It is through motivation that needs can be handled and
tackled purposely. This can be understood by understanding the hierarchy of needs by
manager. The needs of individual serves as a driving force in human behavior.
Therefore, a manager must understand the ―hierarchy of needs‖. Maslow has
proposed ―The Need Hierarchy Model‖

1. Physiological needs- These are the basic needs of an individual which includes food,
clothing, shelter, air, water, etc. These needs relate to the survival and maintenance of
human life.
2. Safety needs- These needs are also important for human beings. Everybody wants job
security, protection against danger, safety of property, etc.

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 3. Social needs- These needs emerge from society. Man is a social animal. These needs
become important. For example- love, affection, belongingness, friendship,
conversation, etc.
4. Esteem needs- These needs relate to desire for self-respect, recognition and respect
from others.
5. Self-actualization needs- These are the needs of the highest order and these needs are
found in those person whose previous four needs are satisfied. This will include need
for social service, meditation.

Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation:

In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioral scientist proposed a two-factor theory or
the motivator-hygiene theory. According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that result in
satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction.
Hygiene factors:
• Pay
• Company Policies and administrative policies
• Fringe benefits
• Physical Working conditions
• Interpersonal relations
• Job Security
Motivational factors:
• Recognition
• Sense of achievement
• Growth and promotional opportunities
• Responsibility
• Meaningfulness of the work
Douglas McGregor:
In 1960, Douglas McGregor formulated Theory X and Theory Y suggesting two
aspects of human behavior at work, or in other words, two different views of individuals
(employees): one of which is negative, called as Theory X and the other is positive, so called
as Theory Y. According to McGregor, the perception of managers on the nature of
individuals is based on various assumptions.
Assumptions of Theory X:
 An average employee intrinsically does not like work and tries to escape it
whenever possible.
 Since the employee does not want to work, he must be persuaded, compelled, or
warned with punishment so as to achieve organizational goals. A close

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 supervision is required on part of managers. The managers adopt a more
dictatorial style.
 Employees generally dislike responsibilities.
 Employees resist change.
Assumptions of Theory Y
 Employees can perceive their job as relaxing and normal. They exercise their
physical and mental efforts in an inherent manner in their jobs.
 Employees may not require only threat, external control and coercion to work,
but they can use self-direction and self-control if they are dedicated and sincere
to achieve the organizational objectives.
 If the job is rewarding and satisfying, then it will result in employees‘ loyalty
and commitment to organization.
 An average employee can learn to admit and recognize the responsibility. In
fact, he can even learn to obtain responsibility.
 The employees have skills and capabilities. Their logical capabilities should be
fully utilized. In other words, the creativity, resourcefulness and innovative
potentiality of the employees can be utilized to solve organizational problems.
Modern theories of motivation:

 ERG Theory: To bring Maslow‘s need hierarchy theory of motivation in synchronization

with empirical research, Clayton Alderfer redefined it in his own terms. His rework is
called as ERG theory of motivation. He recategorized Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs into
three simpler and broader classes of needs:
 Existence needs- These include need for basic material necessities. In short, it
includes an individual‘s physiological and physical safety needs.
 Relatedness needs- These include the aspiration individuals have for maintaining
significant interpersonal relationships (be it with family, peers or superiors),
getting public fame and recognition. Maslow‘s social needs and external
component of esteem needs fall under this class of need.
 Growth needs- These include need for self-development and personal growth and
advancement. Maslow‘s self-actualization needs and intrinsic component of
esteem needs fall under this category of need.

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